We have a bunch of blue posts from throughout the week for you to read. It's been a busier week than normal, with Blizzard seemingly finally waking up and getting ready to show us the goods! With this week's earlier announcement that a press event scheduled for March, we can only hope February passes as quickly as possible, because I think we're all dying to hear more about those pandas.

And possibly their brews.

With all the recent posts turning focus back to Mists, what do you guys think--when will Mists of Pandaria be released? Do you think we could be leveling this Fall in the new continent...or do you think it will be further off than that? Or hey, maybe sooner?

Mists of Pandaria

I like your thread, Vorps! It's great to see some positive discussion and speculation about where this game is headed. :)

We're definitely very focused on opening the doors a little wider to new ideas to really grasp onto what will make this game as fun as possible. It's 7 years old after all. We're not going to reinvent the wheel in Mists of Pandaria, but we want to introduce new types of compelling content with meaningful reward structures so your progression paths don't feel quite as redundant.

You'll get a captivating story, breathtaking new lands to explore, a wide array of new and awesome good/bad guys (from what I've seen, REALLY awesome), a slew of new dungeons and raids, a new playable race, a new class, many outstanding systems improvements, etc.

We hope these features are more or less to be expected with virtually every expansion. But this time we're also pouring our heart and soul into some really fun new features that'll allow you to progress in slightly less conventional ways.

I get so excited every time I meet with Greg Street, Cory Stockton, Dave Kosak, and Tom Chilton to discuss everything they're working on each week. It's even got me logging into some of the characters I haven't played in a while more often lately, just because I want to be fully prepared to diversify my gameplay and explore different avenues of content on different characters.

I think it's really going to be about playing the game the way you want to play it, without feeling entirely like you're missing out on valuable rewards.

The pandaren mount is still being finalized, so what you’ve heard (or seen) are just rumors at this point. Obviously we want the mount to be something awesome, which will take some time to perfect. In addition to the pandaren mount, expect to see a ton of new mounts in Mists of Pandaria. In fact, if any of the new creatures being added in the next expansion look up to the task, I’m sure the developers are looking for ways to throw a saddle on them so they can adventure through Azeroth with our heroes. Though I’m sure some are more comical looking than others. :P Anyway, once the information is ready, we’ll get it out to all of you. Trust!

The Book of Glyph Mastery is actually a topic we’ve been discussing in our meetings. I can’t make any promises just yet but can at least acknowledge that we’re tossing around ideas for the book and for researching new Inscription glyphs.

Retribution Paladin Bug

The bug where paladin Seals could sometimes cause excessive damage has been fixed. This bug came as a result of a hotfix we put in to fix an issue where some attacks, such as Scatter Shot, were still causing Vengeance in PvP situations. While these things may seem totally unrelated, it has to do with our proc system, which is an extremely complicated mechanic under the hood. We reverted that hotfix, meaning you may sometimes see Vengeance in PvP. But we don’t think that will present a major balance concern at this time.

To be clear, we have no current plans to take action against players who experienced this bug last night unless we come across any extreme cases. The error was ours and we haven’t seen any evidence -- so far -- of players excessively exploiting the bug. We reserve the right to take action if we do find evidence of players crossing the line to repeatedly exploit this bug for major in-game advantages.

BlizzCon and 2012

I had arrangements set up and ready to go to blizzcon 2012. Then blizzard said they cannot hold it due to lack of resources. Well on December 21, 2012, Yellow stone national park/siberian traps will erupt wiping out 99.99% of all life on earth. So ig blizzcon 2011 is the last one... I am a sad panda...

We're confident the .01% left will be thrilled to attend a post-apocalyptic BlizzCon.

Player Versus Player

As you already mentioned, in the upcoming patch there is a change to Vial of Shadows that should reduce some of the burst damage you are experiencing in PvP.

Dying in openers certainly isn't fun, and can be incredibly frustrating if you're the one on the receiving end of such a coordinated attack, but don't give up! In addition to perhaps taking some time to focus on other activities such as Rated and unrated Battlegrounds where you have more people to watch your back, you might also consider browsing some PvP videos from other members of the community to not only help inspire you, but to also arm you with a further arsenal of tactics that you can use to your own advantage against opposing teams.

Also, from my own experience, when I was having a lot of trouble against a certain class or spec that I felt countered my usual tactics, I found it helpful to sometimes grab a friend that played that class and spent some time dueling them so that they could critique me on areas where I could improve my skills, including my timing on using certain abilities, and how I could counter some of their own tactics. That way when I stepped back into arenas, I was more confident in my own skills and felt better-prepared for how to expose the weaknesses of my enemies.

Keep at it, and remember there are players out there equally as scared to see you step out onto the Arena floor. :)

One of our upcoming goals in Mists of Pandaria is to make the gap between the overall DPS/healing of both PvE and PvP items smaller. In fact, we have design plans for new PvP combat mechanics that will make PvP gear and weapons markedly better in PvP than equivalent level PvE gear and weapons.

The overall goal is to reduce the barrier for crossing between PvE and PvP (and vice versa), as well as to also ensure that PvP gear is the best in PvP, and PvE gear is the best in PvE.

More details on these upcoming changes will be posted as they become available.

I respect your polite tone and I know you are just trying to raise the OP's spirits but even your own words really boil down to having someone bail you out when a Rogue strikes. While that is indeed the best and often only solution, it really doesn't say much about the balance of Rogues in general.

Regardless of anyone’s rankings past or present, the process of learning and striving to improve never stops: it helps even the most battle-hardened gladiator remain able to go toe-to-toe with their fiercest opponents.

In team-based combat such as Arenas, pressuring an enemy in order to go for a kill or striving to protect your comrade from being the brunt of a focused assault are part of the experience, no matter what classes are driving to get the job done. Most matches are an incredibly complicated dance between combatants: a push and pull of offensive and defensive tactics, of coordinating switches, interrupts, dispels, crowd control, and of learning when to use your particular cooldowns or abilities, and when to change your tactics on the fly. Depending on who you ask, what class they are, what brackets they are in, and what team compositions they run, you are likely to get a totally different answer as to what particular class gives them the most trouble at any given time.

As far as the current balance of various classes: it’s something we are, as always, keeping a close watch on. We welcome you to post constructively about your observations in the appropriate threads, and the more focused and on-topic you can keep it, the better.

While it's not possible to address every individual thread or concern of the community, rest assured we are listening, regardless if you see us post within a particular thread or not.

Turning Off Of Player Weapon Enchants

I realize this thread has been around for a while but the topic is still relevant. As many of you may or may not know, weapon enchants have been a feature of World of Warcraft since the beginning. Providing iconic and recognizable looks to various enchants is something that’s added an element of uniqueness to the game and to your character. However, we do understand they can sometimes overpower the aesthetics of the awesome weapons you can obtain in game now. It’s certainly something we have discussed with the developers recently and we’ll be looking into potentially allowing an enchant toggle. If and when such a feature is introduced, we’ll be sure to let the community know as soon as possible.

New Leaders of Azeroth Story: Lor'themar Theron

Blizzard Entertainment is proud to present the latest entry in the "Leaders of Azeroth" short story series: In the Shadow of the Sun!

Lor'themar was not any surer of his thoughts by the day Aethas was scheduled to arrive. As he made his way through Sunfury Spire to the front hall where the archmage would appear, Halduron stopped him, holding out a small bundle of soft crimson wool. Lor'themar took it and held it up as it unfolded, beholding a regal golden phoenix upon its field: the Silvermoon City tabard.

"No," he said curtly, shoving the garment back at his friend.

"You should wear it," Halduron pressed.

"What does it matter?" he answered, striding forward. "Anyone in the service of Silvermoon may bear it."

"It is the symbol of state," Halduron called after him. "You are the head of state. You should look the part."

Mists of Pandaria Expansion Name

It's not irrelevant, particularly given almost everything that happens after the Cataclysm and Deathwing's demise is centered around the discovery of this new continent. These forgotten lands, as well as the way the Horde and Alliance go about exploring them, are central to the overall story line (much like Illidan and the Burning Legion were to The Burning Crusade, the Lich King and his Scourge were to Wrath of the Lich King, and Deathwing's destructive return to Azeroth was in Cataclysm).

I'm not sure I understand your argument. It feels like you're claiming we're naming the expansion after a new race's starting zone (not true) and arguing that's "jumping the shark." If you're only taking issue with the title, I don't think that qualifies for such a label at all. More importantly though, I get the sense you learned only two bulleted details about the expansion (new race and new land to explore) before deciding to post this thread.

They didn't put Pandas in the game after WC3 because they knew that Pandas were too childish, silly and trivial. Why Pandas now? The obvious reason is Kung Fu Panda.

None of this is true by the way. Should you feel the need to speak on our behalf in the future, we'd appreciate it if you didn't make stuff up. :)

The expansion is not named "Pandaria". It is "Mists of Pandaria". Now to really nitpick.

If you're going to shorten the name down to one word, it should be "Mists". "of Pandaria" is an adjectival prepositional phrase describing the mists. The focus of the phrase is definitely "Mists".

Yes! I always type "Mists" when writing notes from our meetings with the developers and such. "Pandaria" doesn't encapsulate the expansion name enough for me and I don't even like saying "MoP" in my head when I'm reading over my work. :p

I kinda feel like there's a disconnect between Expansion name hype and player excitement.Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King, Cataclysm and even just plain World of Warcraft pointed you towards the event that was going to be the overarching theme of the expansion.

Mists of Panderia feels like a door you go through, and you have no idea whats beyond it or whats going to happen, or even what you're going to do.

That's kind of the idea.

When TBC was being considered, they were originally going to call it Mists of Silvermoonia, but it got changed at the last second for some odd reason.

It was all because someone made a thread on the forums!

I dunno, I would have preferred World of WARcraft: War Of the Blood War Anger Destruction Explode

I mean, that just sounds cooler. And things that sound cool validate me as a male. With testosterone.

/brofist

It is unimaginative to name a land full of Pandas Pandaria.

I could try to reference real world nationalities and their relation to the names of the respective nations from which they're derived. My guess is that wouldn't be the best use of my time or yours. Instead I'll just remind you that's been the name of the continent for a long time now.

Once a bunch of new updates about the expansion come flying out from our offices, we trust players may not just have pandas on the brain anymore when thinking about 5.0. Yes, it's true, the next expansion's name, new playable race, and new continent are all derivatives of the word "panda." We're confident that's not going to encapsulate the entire gameplay and story experience though.

Comments

Comment by rjtremor

on 2012/02/03 14:10:54

I'm looking forward to summer being beta time, and then fall will be true Panda time. Beta will start in May/June. #prediction

Comment by Interest

on 2012/02/03 14:12:07

The bug where paladin Seals could sometimes cause excessive damage has been fixed. This bug came as a result of a hotfix we put in to fix an issue where some attacks, such as Scatter Shot, were still causing Vengeance in PvP situations. While these things may seem totally unrelated, it has to do with our proc system, which is an extremely complicated mechanic under the hood. We reverted that hotfix, meaning you may sometimes see Vengeance in PvP. But we don’t think that will present a major balance concern at this time.

To be clear, we have no current plans to take action against players who experienced this bug last night unless we come across any extreme cases. The error was ours and we haven’t seen any evidence -- so far -- of players excessively exploiting the bug. We reserve the right to take action if we do find evidence of players crossing the line to repeatedly exploit this bug for major in-game advantages.

I find this statement perfectly fair =)

Comment by aburkey

on 2012/02/03 15:07:15

completely irrelevant, but did anyone else notice that one of the blue-post devs go by the name of Brennvin, which is booze/brandy in Norwegian . . ?

Comment by Ashelia

on 2012/02/03 15:11:43

completely irrelevant, but did anyone else notice that one of the blue-post devs go by the name of Brennvin, which is booze/brandy in Norwegian . . ?

I actually did notice, it's a new poster as far as I can tell--I have never seen news updates by them before!

Comment by lordlundar

on 2012/02/03 18:14:38

Of course, this is Blizzard's definition of soon, so take that what you will. :)

Comment by Alfa

on 2012/02/04 04:31:42

I'm looking forward to summer being beta time, and then fall will be true Panda time. Beta will start in May/June. #prediction

Oh god no, I bet it will be out way before fall, May perhaps. 4.3.2 was the last patch for Cataclysm, there is NO way we will be doing Dragon Soul for another 7-8 months. If thats the case, then bye-bye subscribers. :)

Comment by BahamutBBob

on 2012/02/04 04:45:13

As much as I want Pandaria ASAP, with the annual subscription, and getting access to the Pandaria beta, for maximum effect they would need to open the beta up to annual subscribers at least a year after they started the annual subscription. I know they said they want to try and have shorter development time for each expansion, but it would fall in line nicely with the ~2 year model they've been doing so far.

Of course, this is Blizzard's definition of soon, so take that what you will. :)

Comment by Nathanyal

Actually SoomTM has been around for a while. Never heard of Valve Time until now.

Comment by Alfa

on 2012/02/04 17:58:32

As much as I want Pandaria ASAP, with the annual subscription, and getting access to the Pandaria beta, for maximum effect they would need to open the beta up to annual subscribers at least a year after they started the annual subscription. I know they said they want to try and have shorter development time for each expansion, but it would fall in line nicely with the ~2 year model they've been doing so far.

I don't see how they can soak Cataclysm for another 7-8 months, seeing as 4.3.2 is the last patch. If they think they can get people to stay for that long, good luck cause it's already getting old. :)

Comment by Orangutan

Why the hell do people type like this? It does not make your point any stronger. It does not lend any kind of seriousness or weight to your words. All it does it make you look like an asthmatic 12 year old having a hissy fit.

Now that I got that out of my system, I eagerly anticipate the next expansion and will begin calling it Mists instead of MoP. And I would only attend a post-apocalyptic BlizzCon if it was also a post-apocalyptic steampunk BlizzCon.

Comment by whichwitch

on 2012/02/05 03:15:54

And I would only attend a post-apocalyptic BlizzCon if it was also a post-apocalyptic steampunk BlizzCon.

Can I go with you? A post-apocalyptic steampunk Blizzcon would rock!

Comment by Merigit

on 2012/02/05 10:40:32

And I would only attend a post-apocalyptic BlizzCon if it was also a post-apocalyptic steampunk BlizzCon.

Can I go with you? A post-apocalyptic steampunk Blizzcon would rock!

Agreed!

Comment by majinash

on 2012/02/06 10:36:06

And I would only attend a post-apocalyptic BlizzCon if it was also a post-apocalyptic steampunk BlizzCon.

Can I go with you? A post-apocalyptic steampunk Blizzcon would rock!

Agreed!

Fallout 4: Blizzcon

Comment by Snowhoof

on 2012/02/06 12:36:23

I'm looking forward to summer being beta time, and then fall will be true Panda time. Beta will start in May/June. #prediction

Oh, good lord I hope not. I'll be unsubbing if there plans to be another 7 months of Dragon Soul. MoP needs to come out in the summer or this will be Wrath and ICC all over again, which Blizz swore wouldn't happen. And with as many times they've pointed out that Mists was "far along" at Blizzcon, it would just make them look dumb to release it on their typical 2 year schedule.

Comment by Darkerdesign

Comment by feldaemon

on 2012/02/06 15:18:23

What they should do while they are working on MoP is pull out a few extra-hard bosses to add onto dragon soul and baradin hold, and release them every few weeks. That way there will still be challanges to work on while MoP is in the works. They should also have the new bosses drop more vanity toys (pets, mounts, titles, rockets...) rather than gear so that there will not be a huge ramp between the gear of people who are able to kill the new bosses and people who are not.

Comment by Sweetscot

"OH LOOK GUIZ AREN'T YOU EXCITED...I'M HERE AND I'M BLUE SO YOU SHOULD JUST BE PEEING YOURSELF WITH EXCITEMENT...OTAY BAI BAI NOW!"

-.-

/eyeroll

Comment by Darkerdesign

on 2012/02/06 22:04:17

What they should do while they are working on MoP is pull out a few extra-hard bosses to add onto dragon soul and baradin hold, and release them every few weeks. That way there will still be challanges to work on while MoP is in the works. They should also have the new bosses drop more vanity toys (pets, mounts, titles, rockets...) rather than gear so that there will not be a huge ramp between the gear of people who are able to kill the new bosses and people who are not.

And then they should make them really easy. Because otherwise, no one will do them and cancelations will continue.

Give it up. The "challenge" crowd lost control of WoW. There are other games out there for you. You'll find your place. It just isn't WoW.

It'll be ok. I promise.

Comment by dahlranum

on 2012/02/07 08:48:12

What they should do while they are working on MoP is pull out a few extra-hard bosses to add onto dragon soul and baradin hold, and release them every few weeks. That way there will still be challanges to work on while MoP is in the works. They should also have the new bosses drop more vanity toys (pets, mounts, titles, rockets...) rather than gear so that there will not be a huge ramp between the gear of people who are able to kill the new bosses and people who are not.

agreed! well thought!

Comment by Soldrethar

on 2012/02/08 08:48:22

I'm looking forward to summer being beta time, and then fall will be true Panda time. Beta will start in May/June. #prediction

Nah, beta should start in april, then end in june or july me thinks. Alpha either has started already ( because they're being super secretive about this expansion) or is about to start, and shortly after that the beta comes out. I imagine early to mid april at the latest for beta, and the beta will be like 3-4 months, so expect a june or july release. That and they send they don't intend for people to farm dragon soul for a year, and that they'd already made so much progress when they announced it last year at blizzcon, and they said they've made a lot of progress since the the Q and A twitter. And that it's a lot smaller of an expansion then cataclysm (no old world zone updates, which is why cataclysm took so long to release, they had to change the entire old world zones, including every last quest).